Leamington Make The Play-Offs
For Leamington, never has a 0-0 been cheered as hard as it was at the Phillips 66 Community Stadium (except for you know the other times a promotion/relegation/cup competition has been decided by a 0-0 but you).
It was not the best game of football in the world, far from it, and you could see that for both teams, it was very much the case that the tension was getting the better of them. Fluidity in the attack, cohesion in midfield, it all was lacking a little bit, and in the end, the game was decided by two superb defensive performances. Hood and Mace for Leamington were immense, whilst Danny Dubidat got no joy at all from Mike Jones and Matt Day in the Hungerford defence.
In the midfield, it was a tightly contested battle, with Rees and Herring going toe to toe with Gittings and Halsall, and you'd have to say that this was a battle that Leamington shaded. They just about saw more of the ball, won more challenges and created more half-chances.
But in the final third, both teams were found wanting. As the first half came to an end, the tension was high, and that tension only escalated more and more as the second half minutes ticked away. 0-0 was enough for Leam, but Kettering were winning very easily, so any slip ups and it was KO. As the game reached its final fifteen, its final ten, the game got more and more stretched as neither team were quite sure whether to stick or twist. In truth, Hungerford had much more to gain from a win than Leamington, with Hitchin winning to ensure that Leam couldn't get a home semi either way, but Hungerford would with a win, and a draw only really suited Leam. But for Leam, the goal would seal their play-off place, and the feeling around the Phillips 66 was one of intense nerves. A goal would settle those nerves, but it was a risk.
And in fairness to the Brakes, they were well set up for the 0-0. With Jack Edwards pushed up in his more familiar attacking role, a role that I personally prefer him in to central midfield and he was exceptional, it allowed Paul Holleran to slot an extra man, Gittings into midfield, making Leamington more compact. And when Ben George came on for the largely ineffectual Lee Moore, it cemented the notion that one point was fundamentally the Brakes' target.
Both teams had last ditch chances to win it: a header from Day off a corner for Hungerford was smartly stopped by Tony Breeden, who had to get down low into the corner of the goal to palm away the close range header and for Leam, Gittings was released by Dubidat and really should have buried the chance.
But 0-0 was a fair result and I think, accurately reflects both of these teams' various strengths. They're both exceptional defence sides, two teams that thoroughly deserve their spots in the play-offs and don't concede many goals. They both face away trips on Wednesday, Hungerford to Hitchin and Leam to nearby Redditch, and both of them will be very hard to beat. You wouldn't be surprised to see them play each other again in a week's time.
The quality of the football was definitely hampered by what was at stake, and it was a tight, tense, closely fought contest, but 0-0 was a result that Leamington would have bit your hand off for before the match started, at half time and frankly, at any point before the full time whistle. It's a result that secures the Brakes' play-off position, and, with a bit of luck, a real shot at promotion.
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
I want to preface any LFC discussion by saying that I'm not going to talk about Sakho. I know nothing about the case except the brute facts that have already been stated elsewhere: he's going to submit a second sample, if he's found guilty he's looking at six months out and frankly if he is guilty then he's a colossal fuckwit who's let himself and the club and his country down and deserves the ban. From a footballing perspective it's a blow, but either way we needed to reinforce our defence in the summer anyway.
Right, so Newcastle. Newcastle. Oh boy. Well look at it this way, getting a message saying it was 2-0 at HT, I thought. Oh okay, maybe we won't bottle this. And then we bottled it. And it's very frustrating. Because every single time we make significant strides towards progress, we take a step backwards. Make no mistake, this was bad. This is a bad result. Another bad result. But, nothing in this game changes a lot for me. Nothing in this game doesn't tell us what we already knew.
Sturridge scored a lovely goal. No surprise there, he's somewhere near his best form now, and playing very very well. He's always looking to find the back of the net and that is a really really positive sign. And away from Sturridge, there is some real quality fluidity in our attacking play now. Firmino looks equally good playing on his own or alongside Sturridge up top, or just dropping in behind; Milner is in a really, really good spell of form and Adam Lallana, who scored a sensational goal yesterday, is in really good nick himself, and is really pushing for an England start. We have plenty of attacking options and we used them really well in the first half of this game.
But. Here we are again, looking at a game where we've conceded two goals off of two shots on target. The first goal was shocking. Absolutely shambolic from Simon Mignolet. How many times have I sat here and said that we've dropped points because of poor goalkeeping? How many times have I said that Mignolet is an obvious weak link in the side that needs replacing in the summer? Perhaps Moreno could have done more to stop the cross but it was not a dangerous ball into the box, it was an easy one for Mignolet and he made a complete and utter hash of it, where a David De Gea, or a Manuel Neuer or even a Jack Butland would have caught the ball.
And even at 2-1, Liverpool should have ended the game. Sturridge could have had a penalty, Firmino had a goal (rightfully) ruled offside, but the original header from Joe Allen could easily have ended up in the back of the net and Newcastle were on the back foot.
The second goal wasn't great. Townsend did really well but Toure didn't really deal with it. Lovren did well with the initial cross but the lack of organisation was pretty bad, and someone should have been dealing with Colback. That said, Lovren was desperately unlucky that the ball bounced off his leg and in.
It was one of those games. A combination of bad luck, complacency, some arguably questionable refereeing and certainly a lack of Mamadou Sakho and a goalkeeper worth a damn ended up costing us. Make no mistake, it's a shocker, especially at 2-0 up, but a lot of credit has to go to Newcastle for the way they came out in the second half and I don't think there's anything here that we didn't already know. We need a new goalkeeper, we need at least one more central defender on top of Matip, and everyone has days like today.
It's just a shame that it came right at a time when we were building some real momentum.
The Hard and Fast Section
- Man United beat Everton. Joy.
- Aston Villa scored! Twice! No really!
- Suarez scored four again. Barca are insane.
- Sarries made the European final. English power!
- Alistair Cook is in top form. Boding well.
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